The symposium, MICROSCOPY TECHNIQUES IN BIO-INTERFACIAL SCIENCE, will be held in conjunction with the 216th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, August 23-27, 1998 in Boston, Massachusetts, and is sponsored by the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. This application requests partial support for travel and conference registration of invited speakers and symposium Co-Chairs to defray costs. The symposium topic is an important focal point for examining interfacial phenomena of soft biological surfaces with microscopy or micromanipulation techniques. This symposium will serve to summarize recent discoveries in the area of biologically-related interfacial phenomena as a result of the application of microscopy, and will enhance communication leading to future discoveries. In particular, five areas of focus have been identified: 1) Micromanipulation, Microfiber, and Optical Tweezers Research; 2) Surface Plasmon Techniques Applied to Bio-Interfaces; 3) New Developments in Scanning Probe Microscopes; 4) Bio-Interfacial Application of Scanning Probe Microscopy; and 5) Imaging Lung Surfactant. The applicants also plan to include a general session on Microscopy Techniques in Bio-Interfacial Science. The invited speakers are leaders and innovators in the development and application of microscopy techniques at biointerfaces. Backgrounds of invited speakers are diverse, ranging from Molecular Biology or Molecular Physiology to Mechanical Engineering or Polymer Synthesis. The symposium will be accessible to a large number of scientists from North America, and is readily accessible to foreign scientist traveling by air. While the basic outline of the symposium is structured around approximately 20 invited speakers, a Call for Papers has being widely disseminated. It is anticipated that approximately 3,545 papers will be presented. It is expected that one quarter of the participants will be from outside of the United States. The proceedings of this symposium will be presented in a special issue of Advances in Colloids and Interfaces B: Biointerfaces.